Tag: enjoying the moment

Sometimes work makes us do weird things. And forces us to get out and do something, we normally wouldn’t.

Like today. Sure, the beach is fairly close and accessible to us. But getting up early enough to get there, in the AM, just never happens for this lover of sleep (and a certain baby girl who follows in her Mama’s footsteps).

But because I was due to be working tonight, thereby losing my Saturday night with the fam, and the weather was going to be hot, I thought…

“let’s sneak a cheeky beach visit in early on.”

Hubbie was working so it was just baby girl and I. But a working woman’s gotta do what a working woman’s gotta do… grab that opportunity by the horns and run with it! Don’t wait for anything! Enjoy the moment NOW.

Which is exactly what we did. 3 and a half hour of cheeky beach fun. The weather was actually perfect. Not too hot, and yet somehow, hot enough. No wind. So still. And I reckon they were generally locals around, since it would have been more packed than it already was if the Long Weekend touros were onto us…

But just imagine. Imagine I missed out on perfection with my daughter, just because I was waiting for the right day. When Hubbie was around. When I wasn’t working. When we had MORE time. When we were all well-slept.

Scoff. Nope.

It was heaven, it was bliss, and sitting here at work now, I am soooo glad that we did it.

A new Summer tradition has developed in our family, off the back of baby girl’s newly acquired addiction…

That is, ice cream.

She will be half-way through her dinner when she will turn to either Hubbie or myself, and say something along the lines of “Me finish ALL my dinner – then please have ice cream, PLEASE?!?!?!”

She will be in our faces, tone pleading, eyes squinty, hands clasped together in prayer mode, and there is NO WAY you can ignore her.

I have no issue with her getting a treat after she has eaten her food, fine.

But she is doing this every night.

I figure because she does eat the food in all her meals, she is allowed to then receive a treat, and I let her know this too – no eaten dinner, no treat!

Tonight’s request was made harder to ignore, because I suddenly remembered I needed something urgently at the shops… so we all headed down there after dinner, and soon ALL3 of us were standing and staring through the glass windows of the frozen aisle.

Hubbie picked the classic Magnum Almond…

I picked the exciting small tub of Arnott’s Caramel Crowns…

and baby girl picked the Paw Patrol chocolate and vanilla ice cream

And then we went home to do what we do so often after dinner. Sit out the front of the house and enjoy.

And you know what, it is a nice thing to do. We’re taking all of 5-10 minutes out of the busy evenings to just sit, be peaceful, watch the dog-walkers go by, the sunset fade into the horizon, and the mozzies start to hover perilously close… just enough time to forget about the dishes waiting for us in the sink, to forget about the house we have to tidy, to forget the baths, the showers, the getting ready for the next day, for EVERYTHING.

It was the Sunday dreams are made of. No plans, aimlessly going here, and then there.

Gloriously sunny skies stretching out ahead.

Bustling roads and people out and about, making the most of the day – and us with them.

And overall, relaxing.

I had many things to be grateful for as I made my way through the day, and photo evidence was created along the way.

Relaxing with a coffee on the front porch in the mid-afternoon sun:

Having a bite out – burritos:

Then some berry dessert to follow:

And lastly, park play, with long admiring glances at hundred-year-old trees:

It wasn’t until this last stop that my real gratitude came forward. Baby girl had gotten wind of the suddenly available swing, and was going absolutely mental on it. She has learned how to swing on her own, her legs going under and then out in front, as she takes herself to the sky, in her sweet words.

Beside her on the swing was another boy, trying to do the same thing. Hubbie and I watched from a few metres away, me still polishing off my melting ice-cream in the mild evening air, as baby girl squealed with joy, confidently, with strength, and pure happiness, while the boy, at least a couple years older than her, sat fairly still on the swing, trying to move about, but not getting much wind behind his swing.

We heard him call out to his Mum a couple of times. She was just behind us, her back to him, chatting to another Mum.

We glanced at each other. Hubbie made a few comments alongside the vein of “she can’t even hear him.” We were not Mum-shaming, and nor am I doing it now – I am just repeating the stone cold facts of the day.

We watched as this boy looked on at baby girl wishfully, at the same time calling out to his Mum with no hope in his voice – she had already said something dismissive as she had continued her chat with the other woman.

Hubbie said some more ‘interesting’ words… and then stood up. I urged him on with “I feel sorry for him,” but reminded him to be cautious too: you never know how a fellow parent will act when you start to parent their child.

Hubbie moved behind baby girl, pushing her (even though she didn’t need it!) while asking the boy if he needed help. The boy was alright on the seat, and I could hear Hubbie telling him “put your legs under… and then out. Now under… and then out. Great job.”

I smiled as I watched in amazement at the boy immediately responding to Hubbie’s instruction. He started to gain some speed in his swinging, and as he got up higher and higher, Hubbie gave him a swift and strong PUSH.

The sun was setting behind them as I watched, and so I could only see their outlines – but I swear that boy’s face lit up with the biggest smile as Hubbie gave him that huge push, helping him get to baby girl’s height. She yelled in delight to be swinging so high alongside a fellow ‘friend,’ and Hubbie made a few more pushes behind the boy’s swing, urging him to keep going “legs under… then out.”

At the boy’s beaming face, my heart surged with pride at Hubbie’s selfless act. Hubbie couldn’t see his face. He was looking towards the boy’s Mum, with some amount of disappointment on his face, as she obliviously kept chatting.

The boy soon came to a stop, and as he shuffled his feet onto the ground below to stand up straight, his Mum now looked behind her. She laughed and said to her friend:

“Oh Alistair’s just sitting there, he’s fine.”

Oh, lady. You have no idea.

The boy soon got out of the swing and hurried off to another part of the park, while I went over to Hubbie and told him about the expression on the boy’s face.

The mornings are usually a rush. Even though baby girl is not yet in primary school, we are usually somehow rushing for something.

But in these hectic moments, furtive glances towards the clock, and agonising begging for baby girl to “just sit down,” there is a time-consuming activity that slows us both

A-l-l T-h-e W-a-y R-i-g-h-t D-o-w-n.

It’s when I sit to do her plaits.

She likes when I do two plaits for her, like the character Anna from Frozen. And today was no less an exception, since it was dress-up day at kinder, and who should she choose to dress up as of course?

None other than the fiery freckled brunette with plaits.

I realise often as I’m doing this activity, that we both pause, and go very still. And it has less to do with the fact that I actually need her still, and more that we are in this beautiful moment, where she is allowing me to get to work, and I am relishing the crazy, busy, and yet so so precious moment where she is dependant on me to make her hair all pretty. Where I can help her, and she needs, and wants my help.

I remember the days when my Mum would do my hair (my Dad even took to the task a few times when Mum was not around!) and I see with clarity how fleeting, and transitory life really is.

And so I sit there. I ignore the clock. I divide her hair into parts. She goes quiet.

It occurred to me today as baby girl and I walked hand in hand into the local shopping centre to do some grocery shopping, that I am really enjoying the stage baby girl is at.

It comes to reason that parents should always be enjoying ALL the stages their kids go through. True, true. However each stage comes with it its own unique successes as it does its own circumstantial tribulations, and though the younger years are dominated by innocence and naivety of the world, the older ones are shadowed with development, awareness and coming-of-age real world issues.

Each stage is beautiful, though at the time as parents, we probably wanna bang our heads against the wall, more often than not. But, I think I have found a pretty cool age with baby girl at the moment…

She listens.Most of the time. She’s at the age where she listens when I say “hold my hand” as we are heading through a car park, and if she stamps her foot down and says “no,” because she is holding a mini Lego piece, a Shopkin toy or a kinder surprise, I tell her to stick ‘right next to me,’ and she happily complies. I know she will be good, and I know I can trust her.

She listens when I bargain with her too. “We can’t do that now, but I promise you, sometime next week we will come back for a babycino and I’ll let you play there for 20 minutes!”

“YAY! Thank you so much Mama!”

And that leads me to the next thing. She is very easily made happy. Everything amuses her, everything is fun, everything is exciting. The sight of her old fave stuffed toy makes her squeal with delight before holding it close to her chest in a bear-hug, I tell her her Dad is coming home for lunch and she starts sprinting around the house in anticipation… and then, there is PASTA.

The fireworks that begin when the girl realises she is having her fave carb for dinner, I can’t even begin to explain. “Yippees!” “Woo hoos!” jumping up and down and saying things like “best in the whole world” are just some of the catch phrases when she sits down to this. It’s the adult equivalent of winning the lottery, I kid you not.

The phrases too. I say “Dad is at work today,” and she responds with “Oh, come home now. Best friend Dad.” (Awww).

She got further brownie points by saying “Mummy Daddy in my heart.” Girl you want a Ferrari for your next birthday or something? Damn, the heart strings!

And then I close/open the car window as she wishes and she says “yeah, good job Mama.” Big LOLS when she congratulates me on a job well done.

And then there are her food requests. “Mama do banana, no blueberry, no strawberry – ” making sure I get her morning weetbix order right. She’ll be hassling waiters with her food requirements in no time.

She thrives on responsibility. She helps me wipe the water from her trampoline after it rains, she insists on putting items into the shopping trolley, and if I just mention the word ‘help,’ she is immediately at beck and call, on duty, set to impress, and more than ready for all the accolades that follow.

There’s a lot of innocence, a lot of fun, and a lot of laughter at a stage like this one. She is young and carefree enough to not be worried about the ‘real world,’ yet still old enough to be able to go to the toilet on her own, brush her teeth, and even put toilet paper rolls in the toilet when I ask her to.

All of the above happened today, and though I scratch my head at times thinking ‘where did the day go?’ when I look back like I did today, to see the memorable moments making it up, it all comes flooding back to me.

It is the loveliest thing, when the town that you move to decides to throw you a welcoming party in honour of your presence, and then at each anniversary they throw more parties, just to remember how amazing it is that you decided to regal them with your being to reside in their locality.

Yep.That,or it happened to be the Main Street Mornington Festival, which falls on the third Sunday of October and has been happening for 22 years now, and it just so happily coincides with the time of year you decided to move.

Same same.A lucky coincidence either way.

And so the gratitude and happiness at our 1 year long Sea change continued today at the Main Street Fest. It was a stunning day, with a very fresh, strong sea breeze, and yet still, the people were out in force, packed like sardines in the middle of the street as they squeezed their way through amongst the countless and endless food stalls on either end.

After moving very slowly for what seemed like too long, we ended up deciding to just sit down and watch everyone else idle on by, and so we happened across the best spot at one of our most favourite-st of places to eat, drink, do anything really: The Winey Cow.

(I had the best Laksa!)

A spot of ice cream was required from Vespa’s afterwards

And then once some more fun and drinks were had, we headed off back to the car a good few blocks away…

Oh, to be a kid and be able to hitch a ride like that. She is so damn lucky. I had to walk.

And then, poor Hubbie’s shoulders.

But all in all, the day was splendid, and we had spent it as intended – us, our family, just doing what we came here to do a year ago…